A Snowy Moon
by Elestren
Summary: In James, Reums, and Sirius' sixth year they come across an interesting Beaubatons girl forced from her home...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor claim to own any of the Harry Potter characters or settings or anything else.

* * *

Alone. Snow. She was alone in the snow. But where. Looking around, she saw a hillside of snow but there, ahead of her. It was a run-down old shack. The girl began pulling herself toward it. Being was what matter. Remembering would come later. Getting up on her hands and knees, she dragged herself to the door of the shack. She assumed there was no one inside, as it looked as if it had not been used in years. She went straight to the door and tried to open it instead of knocking. The door wasn't locked and she pulled herself in, closed the door and huddled in a corner, trying to get warm.

Senara Silvertongue was 16. She had just reached the shrieking shack in late November, but she didn't know that yet. She did know that she had been forced to flee to England from mainland Europe. But she couldn't remember why. She knew she had attended Beaubutons until mid October this year. She knew she couldn't go back there. And she knew she was near Hogwarts, her hopeful destination.

That was as far as her mind went before it collapsed into total, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Nearby, in the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, four wizards conversed. Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were their names. Currently James and Sirius were leading a discussion of their newest plan for tormenting Snivilus, in other words, Severus Snape. Peter would occasionally chime in with a short exclamation of agreement only to be ignored, while Remus sat in a comfy chair staring off into space. 

"Oh! We should come up with a curse that'll make it so his head's on backwards," Sirius spoke his idea so vehemently that it brought Remus out of his thoughtful trance.

He had been thinking about the upcoming full moon. It was Thursday night and the full moon was Sunday night. But the had also been wondering about that adventures James and Sirius would come up with to entertain them.

"So… You're still devising torture plans are you?" Remus asked a little slyly.

"But of course. You know how much this entertains us," James replied in a mock-humble tone.

Reums grinned. "Yes, I s'pose. Now, are we going to do any of our Trasfiguration homework for tomorrow or not?" he asked, bringing them back to another reason they were there.

"But Remus, we already know it all," whined Sirius.

"Yes, but bractice makes perfect," James quoted glibly. Sirius took offense to the tone and glared at James as they got out their books and homework. While the rest of them were doing so, Remus looked out over dark, snow covered grounds, wondering about snow and its effects on magic, or if there were any effects at all.


	2. Chapter 2

Senara woke to the sun shining its first rays through the cracks of the shack. She felt rested and refreshed but she was absolutely starving. As she moved about the house, she told herself she was looking for food, but as she didn't thing there would possibly be any since the house seemed abandoned, she was really just exploring.

There were two stories in the shack, and dust everywhere. And yet there were places here and there with little or no dust so Senara began to speculate whether people had been here recently or not. But then again, it might just have been some animals looking for shelter.

However, when she reached what at one point must have been a kitchen, due to the iron stove and numerous large cupboards, human habitation seemed more likely. For in a back cupboard she found small stash of slightly stale Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, which she immediately removed from their container to eat. The flavor really didn't matter, she was so hungry.

The sustenance was very welcome and warmed her enough to inspire her to explore outside as well. She tossed the empty back into the cupboard and moved to the door. The hinges creaked rather loudly as the door opened to reveal the glittering white expanse of English hillsides.

* * *

In the transfiguration classroom, for that is the class James, Sirius, and Remus had first, some happenings were taking place. The mice that the students were supposed to be using for their class work had gotten free. Usually they were held in small cages but today the cages had disappeared right before class started. The only differences in the classroom were that one, there were mice scurrying all over and two, where each cage once stood, there was now either a white or pink rose petal. Someone, or someones, had transfigured the cages into rose petals. Three guesses as to who it was. If you guessed James and Sirius you'd be right. 

The were standing in a corner, trying their best to hold in their laughter as a girl screamed because a mouse had run under the chair she was standing on. Remus was grinning at the antics of the teacher, Mr. Tolumbus. Mr. Tolumbus, as he was being distracted by the students, was simply immobilizing all the mice he could see, but of course there were always more appearing and disappearing under thing. A couple of people were pointing at a window when suddenly a rather larger, white falcon down in, shattering the window and landing on a mouse. It dipped its head and took the mouse up in its beak and looked about the room for the first time. All around people were screaming and running away. Mr. Tolumbus had frozen in place and was watching the hawk warily.

"Quiet," he said in a commanding voice. Everyone froze as well and made as little sound as they could. The hawk cocked its head to the side and slowly turned around, looking from one student to another as if studying them, making sure it would not forget them.

"Lupin. Get on that side," Mr. Tolumbus said quietly while making a minute hand motion to the area of the room on the side of the hawk away from the shattered wind. The hawk's eyes focused on the teacher for only a moment before fixing on Remus, who was edging carefully around and out of the mob of students at the edge of the room. Reumus didn't stop moving but instead stared right back at the hawk.

The hawk waddles around to face Remus as Mr. Tolumbus whispered, "Try to shoo it back out the window." The hawk spread its wings and waved them a bit but continued to watch Remus. Remus edged toward the white bird which backed up toward the window, wings still spread out slightly for balance.

"Please go. I don't want to scare you or hurt you," Remus said to the hawk in a barely audible tone. The hawk gave a slight bob of its head as if in assent, turned, hopped to the window sill, and flew off. A few students sighed with relief and Mr. Tolumbus moved to his desk and collected the remaining mice who were all cowering under his desk from the presence of the predator.

"Well class. Would you please get in your seats so we may begin today's lesson," Mr. Tolumbus stated in a tone that implied that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. From there on, class was back to normal and people began to transfigure their mice as instructed. However, people were distracted so most were caught by surprise when the period ended. As they left, Sirius, Remus, and James grouped and spoke in hushed voices as they walked to their next class, Herbology.

"Did you see that bird!" Sirius said excitedly. "It was huge!"

"Yes, I did see it, Sirius," Remus replied almost distractedly, "and I believe it was a gyrfalcon."

"Well anyway, it tripled the effect of our prank," stated James as he grinned form cheek to cheek.

"Hmm… But why did it come in the first place?" mused Remus.

"The mice of course," said Sirius as if it were the only and obvious answer.

"Maybe. But I've never seen or heard of gyrfalcons around Hogwarts before. Have you?"

This left them thinking silently as they crossed the snow to the greenhouses. If they had bothered to look up, they would have seen the gyrfalcon circling once, twice, and then moving away in the direction of Hogsmeade.


	3. Chapter 3

As Senara shut the door to she shack she was staying in, she berated herself. "Why did I do that? WHY? Stupid, Stupid! STUPID! They almost found out about me…" _But I want them to find me, right?_ "No. Not yet. I'll talk to them in my own time." _But that meal was so good…_ "Well, I won't be doing that again." She shook her head to clear it. What she had said had been mostly true. That had been her exploration day and she _had _explored. She had first found the little village; it must be Hogsmeade since it was so close. Then she had found Hogwarts. Hogwarts, with its tall, tall towers that seemed so inviting and yet terrifying at the same time.

She sighed. She would have to actually go up to Hogwarts, and soonder would be better than later. But maybe the village was a better place to start. Yes, she would actually go into the village tomorrow and interact with people, it had been a while, she thought. She was beginning to feel hungry again so she headed out, just to the hillside, to get another snack. After that was done, she sat in the snow and watched the sun set and the moon rise before heading back inside. The moon was nearly full.

* * *

By dinner, the gyrfalcon appearance had reached all but the completely oblivious and was the center of conversation at the House tables. "Hey, did you hear about the big white bird?" "I heard it had a six-foot wingspan." "Who'd be stupid enough to let out mice with something like that around?" snippets such as those could be picked apart from the general babble. 

Remus was grinning into his goblet as James and Sirius were guffawing relatively quietly.

"Stupid? I still think it was bloody brilliant," said James.

"Right you are, right you are," Sirius replied, still giggling a bit.

The serious overtone of that morning had worn off after some fun experimentations in Herbology and Potions. James and Sirius had managed to get their plants to bid eachother and then Sirius melted his cauldron right as James exploded his own. Professor Slughorn had not been very happy about that and had given each detention for the coming week.

"I can't wait for the Hogsmeade visit tomorrow," said James. "More chocolate, mmm…."

"Don't forget that Zonko's has just stocked all its new seasonal tricks," reminded Sirius. James, Remus, and Peter nodded, smiling almost smugly.

"We have to go get our usual butter beer too, though," said Remus. "This is probably out last visit before the holidays."

"Here, here!" the others replied hearily before returning their concentration to the task at hand, food.


	4. Chapter 4

Senara woke early in order to have one more look around Hogsmeade without being noticed. The sun had not yet risen but the sky was well on its way to being light. So she trudged out of the shack, the door squeaking loudly as it opened and closed. She rubbed her arms to keep warmer as she neared the village.

Keeping to the shadows, she flitted along, peering into each building quickly. The shopkeepers were busy making ready for their day, so she decided to sit down on a bench just inside Hogsmeade. From there, she could see Hogwarts, so she curled there, bringing her knees up to her chin and gazed at the towering silhouette of the school as the sun rose. Smiling to herself, a thought flickered through her mind that the students of the castle would only just be waking… well, some of them at least.

* * *

And indeed, some were waking. Remus and James were up and out of bed only a few minutes after the sun had risen. They were quickly dressed as they wished to sepnd as much time as possible in Hogsmeade. 

However, since Sirius and Peter were such deep sleepers, or at least they were not easy to get out of bed very quickly, the two fully awake Marauders had to… encourage them to wake up. For Peter, it was relatively simple, just scare him out of his wits. James took care of that by transfiguring his pillow into a snake. The screams at least brought Sirius half away, but Remus still had to tickle him with a spell to get him up and out of bed.

But soon all four boys were hurrying excitedly down to the Great Hall to grab a couple of pieces of toast to tide them over for the "journey" to Hogsmeade. Once there, they could have something much more satisfying for the tastebuds, Honeyduke's chocolate.

So, as they meandered back out the doors and past the wizened, scraggly professor checking them off, they bumped into Lily. James immediately invited her along.

"Hey, Lily. Wanna come with us today?" he asked, his voice confident but his eyes on the ground.

Lily grinned in response. "Sure, why not?" she replied blithely. There was a small grumble from Sirius about having a girl along, but it was silenced with a warning glance from both James and Remus.

Thusly, they continued on, simply adding another to their midst. Stopping just outside Hogsmeae, the five cast a measuring glance about the little village. The bround was covered in snow from the recent storm and they had gotten there early enough that there weren't a great many out. Just the actual residents of Hogsmeade and a student here or there. There was no one on the cold bench now.


End file.
